John Derbyshire on the life force and death

"In Stay of Execution, his memoir of the inoperable cancer than at last killed him, the political journalist Stewart Alsop wrote of waking in his hospital room late one night with the conviction, induced by chemotherapy drugs, that he was in a railroad carriage. He got out of bed and walked to the door of his room, steadying himself against the swaying of the "carriage" floor. When he reached the door, the swaying suddenly stopped, and all went still. He peered out into the dark, empty corridor. The train, he somehow knew, had reached Baltimore, and he should get out at Baltimore. However, he did not want to get out at Baltimore. The thought took him with great force: He did not want to get out at Baltimore. He turned from the door and went back to bed."